Spode Blue Willow I have been collecting Blue Willow for about 30 years now and it is quite impossible to contain my excuberance when finding a new piece. Price sometimes is the only deterrent and even that fails occasionally. It is the only china pattern that I know of which is based on a romantic legend. Essential Blue Willow components are a Chinese temple, bridge, island, and two birds in flight. There are several versions of the legend but each has the essential core parts. This one is in poem form, author unknown, but one of my favourites. Legend of the Blue Willow My Blue Willow ware plate has a story Pictorial, painted in blue From the land of tea and the tea plant And the little brown man with a queue. Whatever the food to be served Romance does enter the feast If you only pay heed to the legend On the old china plate from the East. Koong-Shee was a mandarin's daughter And Chang was her sweetheart ah me For surely her father's accountant Might never wed pretty Koong-Shee. So Chang was expelled from the compound The beautiful alliance to break And pretty Koong-Shee was imprisoned In a little blue house by the lake. The Dour old mandarin reasoned It was time that his daughter should wed And the groom of his choosing shall banish That silly romance in her head. While friends of Koong-Shee imagined In symbols the dress she should wear Her husband to be sat thinking She should ride in a gold wedding chair. He was busily plotting and planning When a message was brought him one day Young Chang had invaded the palace And taken his promised away. They were over the bridge when he saw them They were passing the big willow tree And a boat at the edge of the water Stood waiting for Chang and Koong-Shee. The furious mandarin followed The groom with revenge in his eyes But the little boat danced on the water And travelled away with the prize. But vengeance pursued to their shelter And burned the pagoda, they say-- From out of the flames rose the lovers A pair of doves winging away. They fled toward the Western heaven The pretty Koong-Shee and her Chang Or so says the famous old legend From the land of the Yangtze Kiang. I couldn't be one to deny it For the little blue dove and her mate Forever are flying together Across my Blue Willow ware plate. Thomas Minton developed and engraved the design, after the legend, in Staffordshire,UK in 1780. For over 200 years the Willow Pattern has been produced by nearly every British Pottery Manufacturer, including Royal Worcester, Spode, Adams, Wedgewood, Davenport, Booth, Royal Doulton, and countless others. Changes in the pattern have been slight over the years, and usually the border treatment is altered. No other type of china is more attractive than a really good piece of willow. But, nothing can be uglier than a cheap imitation with blips and blobs, rather than trees and bridges. This pattern has been reproduced badly, more than any other design in history. Padden Citys Old Blue Willow Southern Potteries Dark Red Willow Worcester Willow Pattern 1912 Booths Real Old Willow